Marvel Try-out book

What's the ad for?
The official Marvel Try-out book
Year
1987
Spotted in
Conan the barbarian giant sized annual 12, Marvel
The scoop

When I first came across this ad I thought it was for the contest that Marvel held using this "try-out" book. The original book was published in 1983 with the winners being announced in 1986. The concept was developed by then editor Jim Shooter. The book described the various jobs of writer, penciller, inker, letter and colorist and provided pages to do the work on. You would submit your work with the prize being a regular professional assignment being to complete the Spider-Man story used in the try-out which was to be published the following year. The issue was never published which I guess makes it a no-prize.

 

The winner of the penciller category was Mark Bagley who went on to have a successful career in comic books including a famous run on Ultimate Spider-Man with Brian Michael Bendis.

 

This ad, however, is from 1987, a full four years after it was first published and the contest was over. I guess they were just trying to unload some unsold copies.